TIRANA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The economic sentiment indicator (ESI) in Albania continued its upward trend in the fourth quarter of 2016, up 9.4 points from the third quarter and around 18.6 points above the long-term average, Bank of Albania (BoA) said Monday in its latest business and consumer confidence survey.
According to BoA experts, the upward trend reflected that confidence had improved in the service and construction sectors and consumer confidence also improved.
However, according to the survey findings, confidence indicators in industry and trade fell slightly, compared to the third quarter, with the Industry Confidence Indicator falling by 3.3 percentage points.
The firms' financial situation had improved, the central bank said in a press release.
Businesses said their production capacities were 3.6 percentage points lower than the previous quarter, but remained above the historical average of 72.4 percent, the BoA said.
The construction confidence indicator continued its upward trend during the fourth quarter of 2016, resulting in a gain of 2.5 percentage points from the previous quarter and 7.2 percentage points above the historical average, BoA said.
BoA statistics showed an increase of 4.8 percentage points in consumer confidence indicator during the fourth quarter of 2016.
